Algeria goes to the polls on Saturday in a presidential election being held in the context of what rights groups have called “a steady erosion of human rights” under the president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who is expected to win a second five-year term.
As many as 24 million people are eligible to vote in the north African country in a process moved forward by three months.
The change in the election schedule is expected to favour the president as his opponents, Youssef Aouchiche of the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) and Abdellah Hassan Cherif of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), have had less time to campaign. More than two dozen other candidates that signified their intention to run were disqualified or forced to resign.
Tebboune announced in March that the election – traditionally held in December – was being rescheduled to “coincide with the end of the summer vacations and the start of the new school year” in the hope of increasing turnout. The move was greeted with scepticism: in the days that followed, the Arabic phrase Ma fhemna walou (we do not understand anything) trended on social media.
Turnout was below 40% in the 2019 election, when the president took power months after a popular uprising ousted Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who had spent two decades in office.
Human rights groups say the rights violations under Bouteflika have continued under his successor.
Nevertheless, Tebboune is poised to win a second term in a country that has never had a peaceful transition of power. The predictability of the outcome is also in part because the president has deepened political patronage and established a strong rapport with the military.
